Foxconn would love to eliminate its worker woes by deploying a full fleet of robots to do the work instead, but this venture may be trickier than previously thought.

Foxconn, which is the trading name for Hon Hai Precision Co. in China where devices like the iPhone and iPad are made, hopes to replace all 1.5 million of its workers with robots in the future, but issues like changing technology and high costs are putting delays on the project.

Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou said in 2011 that he wanted 300,000 robots installed by the end of 2012 and a total of 1 million by 2014. However, in June of this year, it was apparent that those targets weren't going to happen. Instead, he hopes to have "monotonous" tasks eliminated through automation within a few years and fully automated plants in five to 10 years.

The issue? For one, the cost to install that many robots would be very high. According to The Wall Street Journal, Foxconn would have to spend anywhere from $2.1 billion to over $10 billion for fully automated plants, depending on the type of robots used. Foxconn's traditional capital spending is below $3 billion.

In addition to cost, technology is ever-changing, and keeping up with the production cycles of different products would take more time than having humans perform the same task. For instance, once you've finished stabilizing the process for one product, it's already time for a new product to roll down the line.

Just last month, it was announced that at least one Foxconn factory in China received 10,000 robots for the purpose of replacing human workers. These robots, which were manufactured in house and called "Foxbots," are capable of doing simple tasks like lifting, making selections and placing items where they belong. They will act much like assembly line robots. According to Singularity HUB, each robot costs about $20,000-$25,000.

The whole point of Foxconn's robot replacement program is to rid itself of the troubles that come with having human workers. Foxconn has been under the microscope since 2009 for various troubles like worker suicides, explosions in the plants due to aluminum dust build-up and other unsafe working conditions, riots, excessive overtime, low pay, etc.

The company came under fire earlier this year when The New York Timespublished a massive article on the working conditions of Foxconn factories. Apple was also targeted because the report mentioned Apple's lack of action when receiving reports on these poor working environments and overtime/pay issues.

Foxconn gave employees a pay boost earlier this year and is cleaning its act up slowly but surely to comply with audits.

Yes someone has to maintain the robots and "teach" them for new tasks. Since these are made in house at Foxxcon they are probably ripoffs of a Japanese brand and will work well for the purpose.

If the robots are reliable enough than one person can maintain hundreds of robots with the proper training, although if they needed to reset the tasks each one did that would require much more manpower to do it quickly.